Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. 2 And when He had fasted forty days and forty nights, afterward He was hungry. 3 Now when the tempter came to Him, he said, “If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.”
4 But He answered and said, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.’ ”
5 Then the devil took Him up into the holy city, set Him on the pinnacle of the temple, 6 and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down. For it is written:
‘He shall give His angels charge over you,’
and,
‘In their hands they shall bear you up,
Lest you dash your foot against a stone.’ ”7 Jesus said to him, “It is written again, ‘You shall not [a]tempt the Lord your God.’ ”
8 Again, the devil took Him up on an exceedingly high mountain, and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. 9 And he said to Him, “All these things I will give You if You will fall down and worship me.”
10 Then Jesus said to him, [b]“Away with you, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only you shall serve.’ ”
11 Then the devil left Him, and behold, angels came and ministered to Him.
We should never forget that Jesus is still God. Even when He faces down Satan in the Wilderness, Jesus has made all of the decisions that allow Him to get to this predicament. He chooses to face Satan after fasting in the desert for 40 days. Jesus could have destroyed Satan in a moment and ended the confrontation. He would have been well within His power to do all of the things Satan tempts Him with in the passage. Yet, Jesus chooses not to. He chooses to go through the temptation at His human weakest.
Why?
He does it for us. Jesus shows us as a man that resisting the worst temptations is possible. Even while weak physically, when armed with the Word of God we can be successful against the tempter. He also shows us that He, the last Adam according to Corinthians, though in much worse circumstances than the first Adam would never fail us. He would not fall prey to sin like Adam did. He would lead us out of the fall.
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